ICAO is finally moving on carbon offsetting rules, while leading airports and airlines like easyJet and BA are innovating in biofuels and electric aircraft to cut emissions

For all the efforts we make to cut CO2 emissions, our carbon budget can be blown simply by getting on a plane. The aviation industry accounts for around 12% of all transport related emissions and, with demand for air travel expected to double over the next 20 years, the world needs the aviation sector to shape up and cut its emissions.

As the UN’s latest emissions report highlights, we’re not nearly on course to meet the pledges made in Paris in 2015, which would prevent a dangerous rise in global temperature. But while all eyes have been on COP23 in Bonn this month to learn how the yawning gap between ambition and action on climate change is to be closed, the UN’s aviation agency has been meeting behind closed doors on the other side of the Atlantic in Montreal.

The ICAO has been discussing the rules that will underpin its forthcoming Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme (Corsia). Its stated intention is to make sure growth in aviation emissions is carbon-neutral after 2020, but many are worried its plans won’t deliver this. Ethical Corporation understands that, under pressure from developing nations, ICAO has ditched all but two...

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